OLDS — After a couple of years of not being held, the Olds Farmers and Farmerettes Bonspiel attracted lots of excited curlers and fans, organizing committee chair Cory Noel says.
The 41st Olds Farmers’ bonspiel and 38th Olds Farmerettes’ bonspiel were both held Feb. 14-18 at the Olds Curling Club.
In the Farmers: bonspiel, the Adam Winter rink defeated the Travis Phillip rink in the A event, the Murray Stringer team downed the Buck Birnie rink in the B event, the Brian Houchin rink defeated the Jim Thompson rink to take the C event crown; and the Gene Leonard rink beat the Larry Flessatti rink in the D event.
In the Farmerettes ‘spiel, the Patti Gardiner rink defeated the Teri Hunt rink in the A event, Amy Venneman downed the Chris Houchin rink in the B event, and the Amanda Miller rink beat the Missy McDermid to take the C event.
During an interview with the Albertan, Noel said the Farmers and Farmerettes bonspiel wasn’t held for a couple of years due to COVID restrictions, so it felt really good to hold it this year.
The last one was held just before the restrictions came into force.
“There were people who had not been to the rink (since),” Noel said.
“I talked to a couple of people who were businesspeople curling in the bonspiel, representing a business, and they only curl once a year – they curl in the Farmers' Bonspiel.
“This was the first time that they've had a chance to come out and curl since February of 2020 and they were so excited about that,” he said.
Noel said the Farmers and Farmerettes bonspiel plays an important role in linking local businesses, the rural community and town residents together.
“It was great – both from the curling perspective and from the fans’ perspective – of people being able to come out and put this on,” he said.
“One of the fun things about this bonspiel, both in terms of the curlers who come out and the fans who come out, there’s a lot of people who maybe only come to the rink once or twice a year, but they always come for the Farmers and Farmerettes Bonspiel.
“It’s just a huge party, a big get-together, for not only the agriculture community – you know, rural Mountain View County area – but also folks from in town as well.
“And that’s really what the bonspiel is all about, is bringing town and country together and I really think that the bonspiel was wildly successful in that regard again this year.”
Getting back at it after a couple of years was a challenge, Noel admitted.
“Certainly, as a committee, not having done this for a couple of years, there was a little bit of ‘ah, how do we do that again?’ ‘What exactly do we do?’
“But thankfully we’ve got people who have been close to 40 years on this committee and so everything is kind of like riding a bike for them and we were able to pull it off successfully once again this year,” he said.
